Jimbaran Beach Sunset & Dinner

After visiting Uluwatu, we headed towards Jimbaran for dinner. As this is a “must have” itenary for all Bali tourists, we decided to experience on dining on the beach, even though I read from Shelyn’s blog that the foods there is quite expensive.

Hoping to save more, we consulted Jone on the price he can offer us for the seafood BBQ dinner at Jimbaran. He offered us set of Rp250,000 per pax, which contains crabs, prawn, fish, squid, veggie and drinks.. We decided to order 3 sets to share among six of us, by considering on our budget and also 3 ladies among us is actually small eater.

We reached Jimbaran beach quite early, while waiting for the sunset, we go walk around at the beach and photo taking.

There’s are rows of restaurants at Jimbaran Beach, the one Jone recommended is Menega Cafe

Rows of wooden tables and chair on beach…

Before sun set…

Amanda pose with the Jagung stall..funny..

While we taking photo, we saw sexy ladies posing at the beach with the sunset, which attract most of the tourist’s attention J

Beautiful Jimbaran’s sunset..


With my sis-in-law, the 3 sweeties…

We waited a while and our foods served. Wow, set for 3 persons is really a lot.. I think it can’t finish by only 3 big eaters though. We all feel lucky as we made a right decision – save money and save our stomach J

Raymond, my father-in-law happily enjoyed the seafood, with the nice ambience, breeze, wave, and romantic candlelight. The foods taste nice also!! Believe it or not, 6 of us with the 3 big eater (me, my hubby and my father in law) can’t really finish the foods for set of 3!!




OK, time for bill.. Overall it costs us around Rp800,000 add up with beers. I think it’s quite reasonable as it was around RM47 per person., and we enjoyed the ambience around there!!

Cheers and end the 2nd day at Bali...

Uluwatu Cliff - Amazing Ocean view

Our next stop after lunch and site seeing at GWK was Uluwatu Cliff Temple. We are requested to put on a sarong before we can go in.



See, Amanda’s clothes matched the sarong color!! It’s nice!! Other than sarong, we need to put on a yellow ribbon around waist too.. This to show respect to the temple...I guess…

On the way we walk, we can see monkeys everywhere. Jone warned us not to wear sunglasses, because here with the most naughtiest monkeys in Bali.. They will snatch your sunglasses away.. just like the snatch thief in Malaysia… shame..



After around 20 minutes tiring walk, we finally reach.. I felt all worth after seeing the breath taking Uluwatu cliff view… it’s amazing!!! The breeze and the waves sounds so perfect. Let’s take some photo ..





The ocean and cliff view grabbed away my attention. After a while only I recall we should also get some photo for the little Pura (Temple), perched on a cliff right at the waters edge. It looks like it will soon drop into the sea.



It's really a nice experience, as we couldn't get the same view at Malaysia.

Bali, GWK (Garuda Wisnu Kencana)

Fine, I would blog on my trip to GWK Culture Park, as a kick start blog for my Bali trip.

We visited GWK on our 2nd day in Bali (1st day used up traveling from KL to Bali). After water sport activities at Nusa Dua Beach, my father in law felt hungry and can’t wait to have lunch. Our tour guide, Jone then recommends us to have buffet lunch at GWK, since it will be our next stop to visit.

After 10 minutes ride, we reach the entrance of GWK Culture Park. We are impressed by the surrounding limestone rock hill, which looks like abandoned construction. Jone explained to us it was built by a king secretively, yet aborted after his death and no one actually know what he actually wanted to build for.



Since my father in law is urging for lunch, Jone lead us to the restaurant before site seeing. However, the restaurant is so nice and beautiful, force us stopped by few times to take photo.

However, there’s disappointment awaiting us. The waiter told us that no buffer lunch for that day!!! Ok, fine, then we can go for ala-carte. It is quite a tough job to order food there, my father in law want only rice with dish, and I have to make decision for them since the menu is in English. I then order a few dishes, which I think should be fine to eat with rice.

Overall the food there is okay. The fried chicken is quite nice, and the rice taste extra good maybe because it was wrapped by banana leave. And one more special dish is Gado-gado, it is something like salad, with eggs, vege, tofu and crispy keropok.

I do a search on it and there’s definition for it from Wikipedia:

“Gado-gado is a traditional dish in Indonesian cuisine, and comprises a vegetable salad served with a peanut sauce dressing. “



After lunch, we went site-seeing around GWK. GWK is the short name of “Garuda Wisnu Kencana” . Garuda Wisnu Kencana statue was designed and built by Nyoman Nuarta, one of Indonesia’s foremost modern sculptors.

On the way we met a tall Barong. I say "Hi" to him but he didn’t reply me and keep chasing after me, scary…



We first visited The statue of Wisnu, which picturing Lord Wisnu, the Hindu God who is the protector (part of the Hindu trinity Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the Destroyer). The 20 meter tall copper statue of the Lord Wisnu has been placed on the highest hill of Ungasan where visitors can enjoy sunset or sunrise over the magnificent view of Kuta, Benoa and Sanur.





Right behind the Plaza Wisnu is the Plaza Garuda where the 18 meters tall statue of Garuda. The mythical bird (Half man half bird) Garuda is the ride of Lord Wisnu.

GWK is also conceived to be a cultural center. There is an art museum with free admission and kecak dance is performed on Tuesdays and Thursdays admission $5. We didn’t stay for the kecak dance because we are going to visit Uluwatu Cliff and Jimbaran beach in the evening.

Earth Hour 2009.. Do a part for our planet!

Join for Earth Hour at 8:30pm Saturday March 28 2009 or Donate to Earth Hour now!

Earth Hour 2009 aims to reach more than one billion people in 1000 cities around the world, inviting communities, business and governments to switch off lights for one hour at 8:30pm on Saturday March 28 and sending a powerful global message that we care enough about climate change to take action.

62 countries including Malaysia have committed to participate in WWF’s Earth Hour in 2009. This will be the first time Malaysia officially takes part in Earth Hour.

KL Tower has pledged their support for Earth Hour
One of Kuala Lumpurs most iconic landmarks, The KL Tower has graciously offered their support to the Earth Hour movement by providing the venue for the launch of Earth Hour today as well as for the Earth Hour event on 28 March. "Menara Kuala Lumpur, under it's Tower of Hope programme, is committed to raise awareness on climate change and being the first monument in Malaysia to participate for this cause, we would like to call upon other buildings in this country to do the same." said Dato' Zulkifli Mohamad, Chief Executive Officer of Menara Kuala Lumpur.

Dato' Dr Dionysius Sharma added "We are ecstatic that KL Tower has pledged their support for Earth Hour and we are hoping to get our world famous KLCC Twin Towers to be involved as well. Other iconic landmarks around the world such as the Taipei 101 tower in Taiwan and Dubai’s Burj Al Arab have already pledged their support for this cause".

** Source from Emedia News

8tv will shut down tv transmission from 8.30pm – 9.30pm on March 28
"And in support of Earth Hour 2009, for the first time ever in tv broadcasting history, 8tv will shut down tv transmission from 8.30pm – 9.30pm on March 28. This transmission shutdown, done during our peak prime-time hour, will send a strong message to all Malaysians about the need to slow down climate change.” said it’s 8TV’s Chief Executive Officer, En. Ahmad Izham.

** Source from Emedia News

Having Pepper Lunch as Valentine’s dinner

Yes, believe in your eyes; Shelyn and I had our Valentine’s Dinner at “Pepper Lunch”. My plan was actually to have our Valentine’s dinner at another restaurant at Pavillion with more romantic ambience. However, it was fully booked. As Shelyn’s guide of Pavillion (She never been to Pavillion before), I brought her to look around for foods.

Finally, we saw this restaurant “Pepper Lunch” at the same floor as “Food Republic”. Since I read about this restaurant from newspaper, and Shelyn told me she reads it from blog before; we decided to try it out.

Shelyn ordered Salmon rice, and I ordered Hamburger beef steak and Chicken combo. We added RM2.50 for drinks and Shelyn added RM0.80 for cheese.

The foods served within few minutes, and the waiter is kind enough to brief us on how to deal with our foods. Our food was served in Sizzling Iron hot plate, and we supposed to do some cooking before eat, since "Pepper Lunch" labeled itself as "D.I.Y Steak Restaurant". There’s a paper label around the Iron plate, warning us for the hot iron plate and showing the steps to deal with our foods.

For Delicious Steak & Hamburger:

1. Spread butter evenly
   
2. Sizzle it till desired done


3. Lastly, add special sauce (Their garlic soya sauce or honey brown sauce)
   

For Pepper Rice:

1. Delicious butter hidden inside


2. Mix evenly to cook well


3. Lastly, add sauce!

If it's not clear enough, you can always look at the repeating video show on LCD monitor hanging on the wall.

My Hamburger Beef steak and Chicken combo served with a bowl of Japanese rice. The chicken taste normal but the steak is nice. No wonder it’s the signature dish of this restaurant.

However, I can’t taste any difference for the garlic soya sauce with compare to normal soya sauce. I didn’t try Salmon rice, so I leave it to Shelyn to comment on it.

Shelyn is busying taking photo to put on her blog

It cost me a total of RM27.30 for this meal: Hamburger beef steak and Chicken combo @ RM24.80 + Orange Juice @ RM2.50. I think it is worth for the quality of foods and the experience I had in preparing the foods myself.

Chinese Valentine's Dinner at Tony Roma

This year, my hubby and I had early Valentine’s celebration. We decided to have dinner on 9th Feb (Chap Goh Mei) - Chinese Valentine’s Day. The reason was he will be going to Bangkok for one month job attachment starting from 10th Feb, and not able to celebrate Valentine’s Day with me.

Since I love “meats” and “ribs”, my hubby decided to bring me to Tony Roma. He tried this restaurant with his friend before and he thinks its worth to dine at there again. Of cause I agreed with him since I’ve been longing to try out this restaurant also!

Tony Roma has a few branches around Klang Valley : The curve, The garden and Sunway pyramid. We choose to dine at the nearest branch at The Garden. The advantage of having an early celebration is no reservation required, no traffic jam and lots of parking bay available! We walked in and make our own choice of seats, since its Monday and there are a lot of vacant seats.

I look at the Menu for a few minutes, and decided to give up. I think the fastest way to order is to get the waiter’s help. Indeed, within few minutes we decided to follow the waiter’s recommendation and ordered one bowl of soup, one starter, one main course and one cup of free-flow juice. It sounds too little for me, and I’m thinking to add on another main course later.

Here is what we ordered:

Soup:

Baked Potato Soup
Topped with grated cheddar cheese, bacon and chives.

I can’t resist on cheese and bacon... it’s a really fast decision for soup..

Starter:

Onion Loaf
Giant hand-cut Spanish onions, breaded, deep fried and served with our house BBQ dipping sauce

There are two types of serving size: Full @ RM19.90 and Half @ RM16.90. My hubby intended to go for full since it’s only RM3.00 different. (My hubby is always good in calculation) However, the waiter advised us to take Half Loaf instead, because we have only 2 persons and full loaf will be too much for us. After consider sparing our stomach for main course, we ordered Half loaf as recommended.

Main Course:

Roma Rack
3 pieces of Beef ribs with 2 choices of side dish

Again, now is the choice between Roma Rack @ RM49.90 and Full Rack @ RM69.90. The waiter recommended us to take Roma Rack which consist of 3 pieces of beef ribs. Even though I think 3 pieces are too little for both of us (people who knows me will understand this, I’m definitely not a small eater), however, looking at the sincerity of the waiter, I decided to follow what his recommended. (Actually I’m thinking to try other main course if really not enough later on..hehe..)

They served us a small piece of French Bun with garlic butter in short while.
Then follow by Free-flow mango juice.

After few seconds, here come the baked potato soup.. This is the best soup I ever try… even it’s a bit salty, but it’s thick enough and smell and taste really nice. I’m satisfied with the generous amount of bacon also.

The Onion Loaf served few minutes later.. It tastes exactly like Onion rings except it stick together, and you need to separate it out before put into your mouth. I start to feel full, after finish the half of the Half Onion Loaf!! I decided to stop because I still want to enjoy our main course – The ribs…

Finally, here comes the Roma Rack… It looks so crispy and delicious. It was really awesome - a little crispy on the outside, but the meat was still soft enough to come off the bones easily. They are prepared with some special red sauce that tastes nice with meats… After finish one piece, I surrender myself; too full… and let my hubby had the other 2 pieces. My stomach got no more rooms for other main course and dessert! And we still got 2 side dishes, half bowl of soup and half of half loaf onion! This rarely happened to me as I have the well-known bottomless stomach!

Lastly, we requested the waiter to help us “tapao” the Onion loaf and fries, and asked for bills. The total bill cost us RM85, and the waiter told us to vote for him online by providing the bill number, if we think his service is good. He told us he can get a reward if he been vote as the best service staff of the month.

Here I would like to take opportunity to say sorry to the waiter, I do think that he provided us a good service, but I can’t vote for him, because I misplaced the bill. By the way, I think this kind of competition is really good to motivate the staff to perform, at the same time to build up company reputation by provide good service to customer.

My Valentine's Celebration

This year I have a very special Valentine's celebration.. I'm not celebrating with my hubby, but with my best friend - Shelyn ! My hubby and her bf was away to Thailand for works, and we two lonely ladies, decided to make it a special day for ourselves..

Before we decide on what to do on this day, Shelyn asked me: "What are the things you can't do with your hubby?" Without a second thought, I replied: " Sing K lor.. my hubby doesn't like to sing." Hmm.. it's truth, but this is not a special things to do on this special day.. After that I told Shelyn: " Why don't we pamper ourselves with Spa treatment on that day? and we can go shopping as well.." "Ya," this time Shelyn reply spontaneously, "I can't shopping with Don"..

So, it's decided, and later on Shelyn sent me a link to Jojoba promotion, RM260++ for Valentine spa package for 2 pax, and asked me to call for reservatation.

I called to reserve the package on 14th Feb, 2pm. I asked the receptionist whether it's located at Times Square, she answered me yes. She confirmed my booking and told us the price will be RM299 for non-member. I then confirmed with shelyn that booking done, without notice that I've actually done something wrong.

On Valentine's day, I'm so happy and reached Times Square on 1:20pm. Shelyn was late because it's crowded and hard to get carpark in Times Square. Lastly she able to reach on 2pm and we proceed to Jojaba Spa located at Level 15 of Times Square Hotel.

After we reach, we told the receiptionist that we have reservation on 2pm, but they are not able to find our record in their list. They told me i might call to the wrong branch for booking as many peoples done the same mistake. Honestly, I about to get angry and going to show them my black face, because I'm so confident that I called the correct branch, and think that they don't admit their mistake. I show them the number that I call, very confidently, and then so embarass that that lady told me i actually called to Rimba Spa at Royale Bintang ! I was like "Har? Really? Die lor".. coz i would have let Shelyn down, and we can't enjoy our Spa, because it's too late to rush to Royale Bintang ..

Luckily the lady is nice, she then told us we can go for another package but not the Valentine package because the room with shower facility are occupied. She then recommend us Jojoba Ultimate which cost RM280+ per pax. However, it's over our budget. After seeing us in a pity face, the lady went to her manager and come back to us with a good news. They agree to offer us for RM299++ for 2 pax for the Jojoba Ultimate package. That's nice! Shelyn and I agree and proceed to the treatment.

Our treatment first start with Ear Candle treatment, together with shoulder and ear massage. I felt so comfortable and felt asleep. I don't really know what the therapist did, just noticed she put a candle into my ear, and massage my shoulder and arround my ear.

This is what i found from web, some details on ear candle treatment:

"How do ear candles work?
The healing properties of the Hopi ear candle has its foundation in two primary physical actions. First, the slight pressure created inside the ear candle, and the vibration of the rising air column, serve to gently massage the ear drum and promote secretion in the frontal and paranasal sinuses. This has an immediate effect of regulating ear pressure. Users often describe a soothing, light sensation in the ear/head area. Second, the locally applied warmth stimulates vascularization, invigorates the immune system, and reinforces the flow of lymph.
Ear candles users often report successful treatment of nose and throat congestion, sinusitis (or other sinus problems), headaches, T.M.J. pain, tinnitus earaches, and swimmers ear. Most day spas and other relaxation professionals will offer ear candling, because ear candles are an ideal relaxation treatment for stress or anxiety related symptoms. Ear candles, generally speaking, tend to soften earwax for easy removal At the same time, important acupuncture points and reflex zones are stimulated, causing further relaxation of the muscles in and around the ear, which can also help the ear and sinuses to open up."

After the ear candle treatment, we continue with Aromatherapy massage. The therapist massage technique is really good, even better than Thai massage i did at Phuket. I was so comfortable and sleep again, until she woke me up and ask would I allow for breast massage. I agree and then they continue for the breast massage.

After massage here come Aroma eye pillow treatment. After that it end with facial and mask treatment. The 120 mins treatment ended with a fresh and awaken me, I'm quite satisfied with this treatment. While waiting for Shelyn for changing her clothes, the therapist showed me my ear wax from the ear candle treatment.. Wah, it was a lot, and I really don't know when they collected that.

We walked out from the room and took a few photo:

Me and Shelyn

Nice ambience

Time to pay, it cost us RM343.85 after added tax for 2 pax. I think it's worth for the treatment and service we received. Another good things is they didn't waste our time by doing their marketing to persuade us to join as member. I will definitely make Jojoba my choice for next Spa treatment.